Grinvill's Tin

6: The Sea Cavern

Erica looked at Hamish and slowly moved her head, trying to tip out the memory of the evil figure. It hadn't just tainted the air all around, the poison of that creature had somehow seeped inside her. Her brother was deathly white. He looked back at her, his pupils so dilated that his brown eyes had turned coal black. He appeared to be caught in slow motion - or maybe it was simply her brain struggling to process everything.

Yet gradually the nightmarish feeling began to subside. After all, they had had a lucky escape – they had not been seen.

With both the figure and the violent gusts of wind gone, the bay seemed innocent once more and they began to relax. While it had been winter on their own island, it was summer here: the sun shone down and the air rippled in a lazy haze.

* * *

As they walked inland exploring the island further, Erica became aware of a faint humming. Stopping to listen more carefully, she could make out a melody hidden in the low drifting sound. It was sweet but mournful, as if despite the day being so glorious, the island was lamenting, already conscious of how it would slip into the shadows of the Finfolk's curse.

They kept stopping to check where the music was coming from but soon there was no doubt. Sitting on an old, gnarled root that had climbed out of the ground, seemingly preferring the air to the soil, was a slight nymph-like creature. She was holding a set of reed pipes to her lips and blowing into them.

Erica and Hamish crept nearer. They didn't want to startle the creature, who appeared to be lost in her own world. But when they were just a couple of metres away she put down her pipes and spoke.

'Welcome to the Land of Lorna.'

The words sounded more like the rustle of trees in the wind than a sentence, and in fact the creature looked as if it might be blown away with the slightest of breezes. It reminded Erica of a leaf which had survived the winter, its glossy green skin bleached to a colourless parchment, its veins to a pale skeleton. In fact, as Erica carried on looking at the creature, she could almost see straight through her and make out the landscape behind.

The insubstantial figure carried on talking, whispering rather, as if it were the air itself speaking.

'My name is Myor. I live in this glade with the other nymphs. We are the spirits of the trees.'

'And I'm Erica and this is my brother Hamish, but please carry on with your lovely music. Don't stop because of us!'

'The music was for you,' replied the nymph. 'I was calling you. Follow me - I will take you to Sedna.'

* * *

The creature half ran, half floated before them. It shimmered with the palest, most subtle of colours, now washed out greens, now faded browns and fawns. Hamish and Erica hurried along after it. They passed out of the glade and started to climb the nearby hill. At the bottom the land was quite thickly wooded but as they continued to climb, the trees thinned out, and the plants became scarcer. The ground was uneven, and Erica had to watch where she trod to stop herself from tripping. The terrain made no difference to the nymph, however: she glided over bitter-scented bracken and the gentler southernwood, whose grey green leaves released a spicy nose-tingling aroma as Erica and her brother brushed against it while clambering over the rocks.

Finally, the nymph stopped near a large boulder which was engraved with a carving of a seal. She pressed at the image, and the stone rolled backwards, revealing an entrance to a dark tunnel.

'We must go inside,' Myor said. 'Are you ready?'

Erica was not at all sure that she was, but Hamish didn't hesitate. The nymph fluttered down the tunnel which descended steeply: her body gave off a pale glow as she led the way. Erica and Hamish followed behind, more crawling than walking. The tunnel's floor was uneven and made of dry limestone. At first it had a fetid, malodorous smell to it, but as they continued the surface became damp and Erica could both smell and taste salt in the air. Oxygen seemed to be squeezed out and in its place was a cloying moistness. The air was heavy and dank, and the smell of salt and seaweed hung thickly.

Eventually they reached the end of the passage and Myor said they must stop. The claustrophobic tunnel had opened out into a massive underground chamber which rippled with a foggy, undulating sort of light. Erica thought to herself that if you were swimming underwater in the sea, and if you peered upwards through your goggles, then this murky wavering green is what you'd see.

Slowly her eyes adjusted to the light - and just in time! She now saw they were standing on a ledge. One step further and they'd have fallen into deep inky water: the underground cavern was filled with the sea – it was home to a vast underground sea lake.

Looking around, she saw that the rocks at the edge of the lake were covered with cream-coloured barnacles and among these were luscious clusters of purple-black mussels. A thousand tiny white crabs were here too. Erica had never seen so many gathered in one place.

Water had spilled over the rocks and created pools of all sizes. Some were shallow, and in these it was easy to see starfish, pale and fleshy, their arms suckered onto the base of the pools. Other pools were deeper, and floating in these were translucent, moon jellyfish. They hung suspended in the water like cupped viscid ghosts.

All sorts of shells could also be seen in the pools: cockles and razor shells, cowries and flat winkles. Erica spied some Faroe sunset shells, so named because of the glowing pinks and yellows that radiated across their fragile valves.

All the time that Erica was looking at the creatures in the nearby rock pools, she could hear the slapping and sloshing of sea against rock in the vast main pool. She now looked over, her attention caught as a shadowy shape loomed up. Its skin gleamed as it emerged.

It was enormous, a giant sea creature with dark hair hanging wetly over its shoulders, which were bare and slippery. Her skin - was it human or that of a seal? – gleamed in the same purples and blues as the mussels by the pool's edge. As the creature continued to rise out of the water, she slithered up to an outcrop of rock on the opposite side to where Erica and Hamish stood. She clasped the sides of the ledge and pulled herself up. As she used her hands and arms to do this, Erica saw that from her waist downwards she had the muscular body and tail of a fish.

Sitting on the ledge, keeping the bottom part of her tail in the water, she turned to face the entrance of the tunnel: Erica could now see that she had a human face. She looked proud and strong. Her dark eyebrows were thick and her eyes were large and round. She had a full, fleshy mouth.

She was both sensuous and terrifying. So was this Sedna? Before she could ask Myor, the selkie held up her hands for all to see.

There were no fingers, just blunt raw stubs where they should have been. Someone or something had chopped them off. As she noticed this, Erica's left hand spasmed in sympathy: she stared in horror at the base of her fingers as crimson beads of blood blossomed in a ring around each one.

Erica tore her eyes off her hand and looked at Myor - the tree nymph appeared both enraptured and distraught: she closed her eyes tight and clamped her mouth shut. 

Erica turned back to the pool which was gradually filling with other creatures, but none like Sedna. Nothing or no-one could match the terrifying presence of that mutilated but beautiful creature. Smaller heads - the smooth dark ones of seals – now bobbed around Sedna's tail, then porpoises and otters appeared. The lake had begun to team with sea life of all sorts.

Then kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills settled on the rocks, and after another short while, puffins also came to sit.

All the birds and sea creatures were arranged in a fan shape, facing the selkie.

The cavern then boomed with a deep gong-like sound.

Sedna had started to speak.

Thanks for reading this chapter, please come back and read Chapter 6 on Wednesday.

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